WASHINGTON - Yet another controversy has flared up around the Halliburton oil services company of which Vice-President Dick Cheney used to be chief executive - this time over whether during the 1995-2000 Cheney era it violated US law by doing business directly with Iran.

GRAND JURY PROBES CHENEY'S ROLE IN 'ILLEGAL' IRAN TRADE

The US Treasury has been probing the affair, which centers on a Dubai-based subsidiary of Halliburton and its work at Iranian oilfields, ever since allegations first surfaced in 2001. But this week it emerged that the group is under investigation by federal prosecutors in its home town of Houston. A grand jury has also subpoenaed various documents covering its Iranian operations, a sign that some evidence has surfaced indicating the company knowingly violated the sanctions.

Halliburton claims it is the victim of an election season witch-hunt by the Democrats. It maintains it obeyed US regulations over dealings with Iran, which stipulate that subsidiaries doing business there must be registered abroad, employ no US citizens, and operate independently of the parent company.

But these protestations will count for nothing amid the new clamor over Iran's possible ties with international terrorism, and an ever more heated election campaign in which the company has turned into one of the prime issues.

On the same day that President Bush announced plans to investigate Iran for ties to terrorism,<1> Halliburton acknowledged that "a U.S. grand jury issued a subpoena to the company seeking information about its Cayman Islands unit's work in Iran,<2> where it is illegal for U.S. companies to operate." Earlier this year, CBS News reported that Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO of the company "during which time Halliburton Products and Services set up shop in Iran."<3> In fact, Cheney was so adamant about doing business with terrorist nations like Iran, he even went abroad to publicly attack American foreign policy after meeting with top officials from a foreign government.

Despite economic sanctions on Iran because of its ties to terrorists, Cheney openly bragged about Halliburton's business dealings there during the 2000 campaign.<4> Cheney argued that it was ethical for Halliburton to use "independent foreign subsidiaries" that exist in tax shelter countries like the Cayman Islands to skirt U.S. law. He also went abroad to attack American policy: According to the Malaysian News Agency, Cheney publicly attacked U.S. sanctions on terrorist countries after a meeting with top Malaysian government officials in Kuala Lampur.<5>

During the 2000 campaign, Cheney also claimed that, as Halliburton CEO, "I had a firm policy that we wouldn't do anything in Iraq,<6> even arrangements that were supposedly legal." Yet, earlier this year, The New Yorker reported "during Cheney's tenure<7> at Halliburton the company did business" in Iraq as well. The Washington Post reported that despite strict economic sanctions, Halliburton did up to $73 million in business<8> with Iraq while Cheney was heading the company.

.."It?s within this new judicial framework that the Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke is conducting his investigations and the Paris court contemplates an eventual indictment of the present United States? Vice President, Richard Cheney, in his capacity as former CEO of Halliburton. The investigations concern 180 million dollars of commissions paid on the occasion of a gas complex bid in Nigeria.

The hypothesis of an eventual indictment of Dick Cheney is officially contemplated by French justice. According to projections of the case, he could be charged with ?eventual complicity in supplying the means or the orders or the reception (of stolen goods)?, for the misappropriation of public property. If such a prospect is not on the agenda, it is possible since the opening of the judicial inquiry October 8 for ?the bribery of foreign public officials and misappropriation of public property? targeting the American company Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) which is the principal subsidiary of Halliburton, known for having obtained more than 2 billion dollars worth of Iraq reconstruction contracts from the American government and over which Richard Cheney presided as CEO from 1995 to 2000." <snip>

4. No WAY I buy anything will come of this in slavish Imperial Amerika

Edited on Fri Jul-23-04 08:09 AM by tom_paine

Sorry. I've seen to much to be made hopeful about those stories.

How 'bout those Plame indictments? You think Fitzgerald was sat down and asked for "the good of the country" to "wait until after the election"?

I think. Do you think he capitulated "for the good of the country" and not to "unfairly influence the pResidential sham 'election'?

I think so.

As if having someone directly connected to the Emperor of Vice Ruthless Dick committing treason isn't information the public needs to know.

Living behind the Televised Curtain of Imperial Amerika has made me very cyncial. Of course, it has also damned near made me a prophet, able to predict the future with the skill of a Kremlinologist in 1978.

8. Only hope is that Kerry campaign efforts to expose Cheney will work

Edited on Fri Jul-23-04 08:43 AM by wishlist

since most of the television media continue to give Cheney a free pass by ignoring or downplaying the seriousness of his Halliburton dealings and numerous lies he has told. Only Americans who read magazines and newspapers (and internet articles) in depth or watch CSPAN religiously have any idea at all about the magnitude of the allegations against Cheney.

Whenever Dems like Bergala or Carville bring it up they get shouted down and the details never come out. This past week I thought the breaking news about the Halliburton subpoena over Iran dealings would be a significant news story but instead we were bombarded with media coverage of the wildly overblown accusations against Sandy Berger and the trivial flap over Arnold's girlie men remarks.

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